THE Scottish government's decision to ditch an innovative health scheme shows on the quiet shows contempt for voters, says RECORD VIEW.

BACK in 2011, then public health minister Shona Robison was gushing praise about a trailblazing new scheme called Life Begins at 40.

The “innovative” service was going to see all Scots turning 40 invited to take part in a cyber health check as part of a wider package of help for the middle-aged.

The £285,000 screening programme was designed to catch illnesses early and was announced with much fanfare.

“Prevention is better than cure and we are dedicated to doing all that we can to identify those at risk from as early as possible,” said the SNP minister.

“It’s important that people are encouraged to check their health and we want to make it as easy and convenient as possible.”

But it seems Robison was somewhat premature in her praise of the scheme.

It emerged yesterday that the government have quietly dropped the cyber check-up idea after doctors said it was a waste of money.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with ministers deciding that a pilot project wasn’t achieving what they’d hoped and deciding to stop it.

But it is odd that the Scottish Government didn’t tell anyone this was the case until they were pressed by journalists to explain what was happening.

The Life Begins at 40 plan was a cast-iron manifesto commitment for the SNP in both 2007 and 2011.

For it to be dropped on the sly without an announcement or explanation smacks of contempt for voters.

Politicians have a duty to keep us informed when their policies change.

And if this plan – which Robison said was so important – is now dead and buried, voters are entitled to know what will be put in its place.

Iraq war truth vital

The grim spectre of the Iraq war still looms large.

More than 11 years on, we are still no closer to finding out exactly what took us to war.

Today, we report that the cost of Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry into the origins of the war could top £10million after repeated delays.

And the ongoing row over “declassifying” records of conversations between Tony Blair and George Bush means the findings are already more than two years late.

Of course, the cost of the inquiry will be more than justified if it actually gets to the truth.

Much more worrying is the suspicion that Sir John will be thwarted in his attempt to shed light on the conversations between Bush and Blair about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, which we now know to have been non-existent.

The public – and the families of the British servicemen and women who were killed or injured in Iraq – have a right to know what exactly happened in the run-up to this war.